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It was all set up to be a battle at Wrexham half this weekend! The second race of the year in the club road/trail championship and no doubt many Harriers had packed their passports for the journey to Wales, but alas, with the course already affected by Storm Ciara last weekend the impending Storm Dennis was all too much so the organisers took the decision to call it off.
Next up on the fell championship is our very local James’ Thorn Fell Race on 1st March. For those who don’t know the course, in true fell running fashion you run up James’ Thorn and back down (I think on the same path). I did this in 2018 and pretty much vomited running up that slope at the end by Mossy Lea farm because I was being chased down so had to give it some effort, so yeah it was a toughie.
There might not be a huge amount of race reports come in, but there’s still plenty of info and club updates to wash down your necks with a Sunday evening tipple.
Here we go….
Wrexham Half
Didn’t happen! I don’t know if it’s going to be rescheduled, or if a replacement race for the champs will be announced, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon!
Stockport Trail Half
Did happen! And we had some reports in to prove it! Joe Gavin sent this in:
No sign of Storm Dennis this morning at Stockport Trail Half – in fact conditions were pretty good.
Only a small number of Harriers were there presumably due to the majority entering Wrexham half.
The race sets off down the Middlewood way – a long fairly uneventful trail, for the first 10k. We then loop back along the canal were things were a bit more challenging, narrow paths, huge puddles and plenty of mud made it a little difficult to set a regular pace but it was all good fun.
The final 5k or so is back along the trail.
The course is very flat and I would certainly recommend for anyone chasing a PB. I was happy to come in at 1:42:22 a PB for me and keeps me on track with my marathon preparation.
Mandy Beames went for a less is more approach and sent in this review:
Type 2 fun.
I’ve had a browse of the results and here they are, sorry if I missed anyone!
Caitlin Rice 1:27:37
Joe Gavin 1:42:22
Tony Hillier 1:58:28
Mandy Beames 2:32:47
Carnethy 5 Fell Race
Alice Wilson took on the Carnethy 5 fell race. This looks to be an AM, 6 miles, 2500 feet total climb over 5 summits. Bound to be tough in a storm! Top running!
New Chew 2020
Only vague details on this one but it started at Dovestones sailing club and you had to go out and find things. It looks like Joe Travis and Lins Palmer both did it and presumably completed it as it made it’s way on to Strava.
Parkrun
As if the weather would stop us Harriers! Great turnout at parkrun with 19 club members running around Manor Park. I didn’t spot any PBs but, let’s face it, the conditions were hardly ideal. Another gang took the trip to Lyme Park for a tough run and a chance to secure some early champs points. William Mather gives us the lowdown at Lyme:
6 Glossopdale Harriers thought it was great conditions to get some club champs points, it wasn’t. Being more like a cross country in a lot of places it made it very difficult to descend at any speed and then the run in was slippy and felt with the head wind we were being pushed back down the hill.
Steve Crossman flew round with his streamlined head finished 2nd in a time of 21:51. Chris Jackson had a stronger head wind to contend with but still made light work of it 22:11. Luke Holme shot round and finished 30secs off his PB so plenty more to come when its dried up a bit 23:25. Will Mather, I slipped with every step, should of just ran in my road shoes but I didn’t fall so that’s always a plus and got a PW 24:30.
Jason Hart …..who? This fella hasn’t done a parkrun in 5 years and it reminded him of doing cross country in his underwear, best not to ask but he sped round in 27:22.
Si Toole was loving life splashing round in the mud and is the one Crossman styles himself on, the ever smiling Si finished in 27:50. After scrapping some of the mud off Luke, Jason and I ran back to Glossop while the rest went for a brew to warm up.
Consolidated club report HERE
Top Mileage and Climbing
Who’s been a mileage junkie this week? *drum roll* Chris Jackson wins the bottle of Lambrini with a respectable 86.1km, but even with his hill climbing prowess he was still beaten to the top spot by Jamie Helmer by a mere 24m – Jamie clocked up 3,151m.
You’ve forgotten to pay your subs
It looked like some naughty club members didn’t pay their subs on time. If you’re one of the people who “put it on the laterbase” then get it to the top of your to-do list!
What’s happening during the week?
The Wild Webb Wednesday Webbinars are over for the year! Big thanks to Chris Webb for running the sessions over the grim months and bashing us all with the stats; standard deviations, consistency rankings, percentage of mud coverage on legs and all sorts of other clever stuff.
So what are the club running options this week: –
Tuesday – Coach J will of course be running a speed sesh – await the announcement on Facebook.
Thursday – Thursdays are BACK! Well, they never really went, but they’re certainly growing week-by-week. Plod Squad is now official: a run of between 5-8km with walking breaks if needed, no one gets left behind. There’s pretty much always a fell group, and any other options (fartlek, 10km time trial, easy fell, local race recce, visit to Wetherspoons or whatever) depend on who has volunteered to lead a run, so keep your eye out for announcements on Facebook. Basically, there’s something for everyone!
Even though you get just as covered in mud as going into the hills, the Longdendale trail is a regular feature on a Sunday morning too! 9am at the car park i believe.
Committee Corner
As many of you already know, there were quite a few new committee members voted in at the AGM in January. Well, it looks like they all went to the pub for a jolly and badged it as “a meeting”. Unlike normal pub visits there are some minutes (now we all definitely wouldn’t want that at a normal pub visit!!) and here they are – Committee Meeting Minutes
Below is a general Committee update from Lucy Wasinski and a bit about the club mugs from Alison Holt.
Club Kit
I (Lucy) now has the stock of club kit – there are various items of kit including vests (£15) and some t shirts (£15) and 2 size small long sleeved T shirts (£17).
Some junior vests (£13). But more concerningly – we have 57 buffs! (£6 each)!! So if you want to keep your head, face, neck warm in Storm Dennis and whatever weather awaits us next week – a buff might just do the job so get shopping people!!
Please email club.secgdh@gmail.com if you want anything. I don’t have vast amounts of cash sitting around (sadly) so please wherever possible, pay direct to the GDH bank account as it will massively help, and reference your payment with what it is you have purchased. (bank details on membership page of website).
These mugs were originally commissioned to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the club in 2012, which means we are only two years off the 40th anniversary!
There are approximately 10 of these limited-edition bone China mugs left. £7 each, payable to GDH bank account. Collection from me (Alison).
Note if you were a championship completer in 2019, you get one of these as a prize so there are a few set aside for that – please contact Alison to claim your well-deserved reward!
Club Contacts
If you have any questions or queries, or have something you would like discussed at a committee meeting, please raise these with any of the committee members, details of who they are can be found here https://www.glossopdaleharriers.org.uk/contacts/ (thanks to Dan S for updating this page and many of the others on the website!)
Please note the club secretary email address has changed and is now club.secgdh@gmail.com
Other emails you might need and that are unchanged are:
Membership secretary – membership.secgdh@gmail.com
GDH report – gdhweeklyreports@gmail.com
Please ensure any updates and reports for the weekly report are emailed rather than sent via messenger, text message, instagram, pigeon etc – this will make sure whoever is collating everything won’t miss out your update!
Last but not least
An update from Gregg Wasinski about the VJ shoes test:
A quick update on the VJ shoe test. No firm dates but agreed that would do it on a Thursday evening to coincide with a club run so people would be available. Rather than doing by torch thought would leave till early April (maybe first week) to make sure there’s a reasonable amount of natural light and that it doesn’t clash with Herod Farm etc. No details on format or confirmed location yet but thought Pyegrove might make sense as plenty of space and easy access to various terrain.
… and there was me thinking it was going to be a quiet week! Have a great one Harriers and get your reports in next week to gdhweeklyreports@gmail.com